DENVER — Michael Bunting scored two goals for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who spoiled the return of Nathan MacKinnon by defeating the Colorado Avalanche 6-2 at Ball Arena on Saturday.
Austin Matthews had a goal and an assist to reach 499 NHL points, William Nylander and John Tavares each had two assists, and Matt Murray made 26 saves for the Maple Leafs (23-8-6), who have won four of five.
“I’ll point out some of the things that are teachable moments for us, the way we closed out the first or second periods,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “But aside from that, I thought there was a lot of good things in the game. We got contributions from all four lines, all six defensemen, got saves from ‘Murr’ when we needed them there, when they had some of their flurries. . So like I said, it’s a good way to close out what feels like a real long road trip here.”
Video: TOR@COL: Matthews finishes Nylander’s feed in the 2nd
JT Compher had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (19-13-3), who have lost three straight (0-2-1).
Alexander Georgiev allowed five goals on 24 shots before being replaced in the second period by Jonas Johanssonwho made seven saves in his season debut.
“I didn’t mind our start tonight,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Thought the first five, six, seven minutes was pretty good. We gave up the rush opportunity. Skill player challenging 1-on-1 scores. Got better as the game went on, for sure. I liked our second period. We pulled within one goal, and they cracked a couple of quick ones, so we got within striking distance. Just weren’t tight enough on the defensive side of things.”
MacKinnon was minus-3 with three shots on goal in 22:49 after missing 11 games with an upper-body injury.
“I thought he was OK. Yep. I thought he had his legs underneath him,” Bednar said. “I thought his timing might be off a little bit. But obviously Nate keeps himself in great condition. Came back ready to skate and play. Was pretty dangerous at times. It’ll take him a game or two to figure out the timing of it, but I thought he played pretty hard tonight.”
Video: TOR@COL: Marner scores a slick opening goal in the 1st
Mitchell Marner gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 6:51 of the first period when he avoided a check from an Avalanche defenseman Andreas Englund and scored from the right circle.
“It was a great play by Calle [Jarnkrok] getting off the wall,” Marner said. “I just tried to keep my speed going. Tried to do a little, I guess, stutter step there, and it worked. From that point on, I just tried to place it and lucky enough it went in.”
Pierre Engvall made it 2-0 at 9:27 when he found a loose rebound above the crease and beat Georgiev short side.
“Big goal by Mitch to get us going. Really great goal there, and then Engvall scores us a big goal, too,” Keefe said. “I thought there [were] contributions all the way throughout, and I thought we did what we needed to do.”
Compher cut it to 2-1 at 17:28 when he skated into the zone, cut above the right circle and beat Murray glove side with a wrist shot. It was his third goal in four games.
Video: TOR@COL: Bunting extends lead with PPG in 2nd
Bunting extended the lead to 3-1 on a power play when he tapped a loose puck into the open net 34 seconds into the second period.
“It’s obviously a different look with the five forwards. We’ve had some opportunities, have done some good things,” Tavares said. “The other unit’s done really well and contributed, and you need that. So great to see them get some big goals and find some continuity as well. And then for us to kind of just stay with it and continue to create good looks and obviously get rewarded tonight.”
Devon Toews cut the lead to 3-2 at 9:45 after his redirection of Compher’s shot caromed off the skate of Matthews in the crease.
Matthews extended the lead to 4-2 at 15:00 when he backed away from Georgiev and waited for the goalie to commit before shooting.
“I just tried to get the forecheck a little bit and try to force their guy to maybe make a play that he’s not comfortable with,” Matthews said. “‘Willy’ (Nylander) made a nice read to jump it. Gave me a lot of time in front of the net. Just tried to sneak it in.”
TJ Brodie pushed it to 5-2 when his shot from the blue line beat Georgiev far side at 15:24, and Bunting scored an empty-net goal at 16:11 of the third period for the 6-2 final.
NOTES: Jarnkrok (three goals, four assists) and Engvall (two goals, three assists) each extended his point streak to five games. … Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren played his 100th NHL game. … Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen has ended his four-game point streak (three goals, four assists). … Compher finished December with 216 face-off wins (216-of-397, 54.4 percent), the most in the NHL. He is the first Avalanche player to win more than 200 face-offs in a single month since Joe Sakic (223) in November 2002.
.